ARBITER...in a competitive world
I first officiated a sporting event while I was in the navy and the
referee for a league touch football game didn't show up. It was
interesting because it was automatic for me to "call 'em like I saw
'em."
In San Antonio I had a baseball team that played all comers and again
one day when no umpire showed up, I volunteered and found that I could
be objective even though it might adversely affect my team's fortunes.
When I moved to San Francisco, I heard of a need for professional
umpires to handle local high-level sandlot games and as I had no job I
took it on with enough success that I was in demand and worked 7 or 8
games a week.
Very few people are willing to endure the verbal (mostly) attacks
associated with being judge, jury and executioner in an area where
competition is so fierce. I was a baseball fan since the Jackie Robinson
inclusion. With umpiring, I learned a great deal about being
simultaneously disinterested and arbitrary.
Umpiring is a perfect example of the second kind of truth. Like a TV
commercial in which an actress playing an underwear inspector says, "It
can't say 'Haynes' until I say it can say 'Haynes'" so in baseball,
you're not safe until the umpire says you're safe. Such truths irritate
the participants, witness the violent squabbles rampant in many games,
but it is also well understood that the game could not be played without
having an independent truth maker. The same theory applies to the
institution of government or business. Somebody has to decide which scene gets shown, which winds up on the cutting-room floor.
On their surface athletic contests seem to be conflict but it soon is
evident that they are fully cooperative efforts. This is also true of
business competition, fights, and even war. The advent of instant
universal communication brings us together in a huge verbal network so
that we can hope to eliminate borders and other barriers. Just as Jackie
Robinson's use of baseball as a demonstration of the obsolescence of
separate leagues for Negroes, so the jetliner and satellite
communication are changing such customs as Customs Services.
Baseball played by high school and older amateur athletes is much like
its professional model - a world unto itself. The participants' lives
are heavy with the lore and exuberance of participation. The most
telling thing I learned is that competition is a form of cooperation,
not of conflict
Umpiring gives a unique feeling; one makes of oneself a sort of
stimulus/response machine and merely calls the plays reflexively. It is
a very detached thing; when the players argue it often seems quite
absurd and always becomes a sort of "theater of confrontation."
Most of the time there is full cooperation between competitors and
officials because it is accepted that without impartial arbitration the
game becomes impossible. In our culture we focus on competition as
conflict but conjunctive effort is a more appropriate model. At one time
the rules of baseball forbade fraternization among competitors before
contests, now we aren't surprised when a football player tells his rival
"nice hit."
The techniques used by baseball umpires are little appreciated by fans
or players. A famous catcher turned TV analyst holds forth about certain
players "getting the calls" and the methods he used when playing to
influence decisions. I often wonder if a year of calling balls and
strikes would make him aware of certain psychological facts: there is no
time to call pitches if one waits to see where the catcher's mitt
receives the ball - the call is made prior to that, when the ball
crosses or misses the plate.
When I was umpiring I was unaware of who's a rookie and who a star. You
wouldn't last a month as a professional umpire if you had all the
prejudices and influences cited by reporters.
One of the few instances of cannabian interference with performance was
trying to umpire while high. I tried it once, and was too laid back to
have an attitude of importance about what I was doing. Calls were
delayed and I'm sure I seemed indifferent - which doesn't work well.
Indecision when the job is deciding just doesn't qualify.